A rectangle-shaped wristband wearable, worn on a wrist

A Digital White Cane For The Visually Impaired

August 12, 2021 by Chris Wilkinson 22 Comments

The white cane (and its many variants) is an everyday carry for many visually impaired people. This low-tech tool allows those afflicted by visual impairment to safely navigate the world around them, and has been ubiquitous in many parts of the world for decades. [Madaeon] has been hard at work going one step further in prototyping an open-source assistive wearable that could help in situations where a cane is not practical, or useful.

The T.O.F Wristband V2 alerts its wearer to nearby obstacles through vibrations, and is able to detect objects up to four meters away. As the wearer veers closer and closer to an obstacle, the vibration increases in frequency. A time-of-flight distance sensor is controlled by a Feather, and the whole system is powered by a small lithium-polymer battery. The prototype consists of just four components plus a 3D printed case and bracelet, which inevitably keeps down costs and complexity.

Version two of this project picks up where version one left off. In that project, [Madaeon] mentioned the possibility of squeezing this project down to the size of a ring. Perhaps with better battery technology, a ring-sized sensor might just be possible one day.

This isn’t the first wearable that has set out to assist the visually impaired. Back in 2019 we covered a laser-augmented glove that attempts something very similar.

By some estimates, nearly one billion people worldwide have some degree of visual impairment. Assistive devices like the T.O.F Wristband V2, and others like it, offer these people the potential for greater independence and an improved standard of living.

Continue reading “A Digital White Cane For The Visually Impaired” →

Bright Bike Light Might Make Them Back Off

July 29, 2021 by Kristina Panos 26 Comments

[Tegwyn☠Twmffat] recently got a job as a part-time bike courier and has come to realize just how dangerous it can be to mix leg-powered transportation with various sizes of engine-driven machinery. Some people would be content with a light, but why use a measly little bulb or two when you can have a giant, illuminated sign with a clear call to action? Because is there really any ceiling when it comes to safety precautions?

We think that 180 LEDs in a familiar formation oughta do it. An ultrasonic sensor detects cars behind the bike with the help of an Adafruit Feather. All those LEDs are controlled by a pair of L293 motor driver chips and a slide potentiometer for some dimming action. After all, they need to get enough juice to be visible in broad daylight, but also be dimmable so as not to blind people at night.

[Tegwyn☠Twmffat] calls this a simple project that is suitable for beginners. We think that is great, because bespoke safety measures should be accessible for everyone. So go get those Gerbers and make one for yourself! You can check it out in action on the back of a tricycle after the break.

Want a more relaxing ride? Recumbent is the reclined way to go.

Continue reading “Bright Bike Light Might Make Them Back Off” →

Ten Projects Won The Refresh Work-From-Home-Life Round Of The Hackaday Prize

July 27, 2021 by Kristina Panos 3 Comments

Here we are, a year and change into this pandemic, and if you were new to working-from-home every day at the start, surely it has lost its luster by now. We asked you to stand back and assess what can be better about WFH life and you took it from there, building incredibly useful things we couldn’t have dreamed of. From a pool of more than one hundred entries, the judges have selected ten projects whose creators have each been awarded a $500 prize, and will advance to the final round of the 2021 Hackaday Prize in October.

Are your prototypes a mess of wires? Or do you spend way too much time making sure each jumper is cut to the perfect length? Either way, you’re better off using breadWare, which takes a standard breadboard and changes the connection process into a software solution. That’s right — any rail including the power rails can connect to any other thanks to a handful of analog CMOS switch chips.

Maybe you’d love to build the perfect keyboard to grace your battlestation, but are afraid of all that hand wiring. Make it easier on yourself by soldering each key switch to its own little PCB.

If your home office is sometimes overrun by little humans that need immediate attention, you’ll no doubt appreciate the value of a device that can deactivate your web camera and mic automatically when it no longer senses your presence.

You may have left that awful office lighting behind, but you’re still getting plenty of prolonged exposure to blue light. This project aims to head that off a bit by replicating the current outdoor light temperature with indoor lighting. And don’t forget — air quality is just as important, so crack open a window once in a while and build yourself a smart lamp that can give you hard numbers.

This was the second of five challenges in the 2021 Hackaday Prize, which means that the ten finalists linked below will have until the end of October to flesh out and polish their projects before the final round of judging. Meanwhile, we’ve kicked off the next round with the Re-imagine Supportive Tech challenge. Show us how you would make electronics and devices more accessible, as in more modular, hackable, or affordable.

Ten Finalists from the Refresh Work From Home Challenge:

If you like these, take some time to kick back and peruse the entire list of entries in this challenge. You deserve it.

Get Some Close Air Support With A Nerf Drone

July 26, 2021 by Danie Conradie 12 Comments

Working from home has the major advantage of spending more time with loved ones, but it all that time can sometimes lead to friction. [Cory] found that Nerf battles with his kids is an effective way to blow off some steam, but felt he was getting a bit too much exercise in the process. Instead, he equipped an FPV quadcopter with a 3D printed Nerf gun to take his place.

Since manually reloading the Nerf gun after every shot wasn’t an option, he needed to create an autoloader. The darts are propelled by a pair of brushless drone motors mounted side-by-side, with just enough space for a dart the squeeze between. The motors are allowed to spin up, and then a dart is loaded servo-operated plunger, out of an off-the-shelf Nerf magazine. The motors ESCs and servo is controlled by an Arduino Nano, which receives the fire command from one of the spare outputs on the drone’s flight controller. To nerf gear is easily removable from the drone, so [Cory] to also fly the drone on more peaceful missions. See the video of one of the battles after the break. [Cory] might need to find an alternative control location to prevent himself being used as cover by his adversaries.

Nerf guns are a fun and harmless way to live out your sci-fi warfare fantasies, especially with the technology we have available these days. From FPV sentry guns to auto-aiming rifles, and heavy artillery, anything is possible.

Continue reading “Get Some Close Air Support With A Nerf Drone” →

Why Make Coffee When You’re Tired? Let A Robot Do It For You

July 25, 2021 by Kristina Panos 9 Comments

Like us, [Alberto] doesn’t compromise when it comes to a good cup of coffee. We figure that if he went to an office in the Before Times, he was the type of coworker to bring in their own coffee equipment so as not to suffer the office brew. Or perhaps he volunteered to order the office supplies and therefore got to decide for everyone else. Yep, that’s definitely one way to do it.

But like many of us, he is now operating out of a home office. Even so, he’s got better things to do than stand around pouring the perfect cup of coffee every morning. See, that’s where we differ, [Alberto]. But we do love Cafeino, your automated pour-over machine. It’s so sleek and lovely, and we’re sure it does a much better job than we do by hand — although we enjoy doing the pouring ourselves.

Cafeino is designed to mimic the movements of a trained barista’s hand, because evidently you’re supposed to pour the water in slow, deliberate swirls to evenly cover the grounds. (Our kettle has a chunky spout, so we just sort of wing it.) Cafeino does this by pumping water from an electric kettle and pouring a thin stream of it in circles with the help of two servos.

The three buttons each represent a different recipe setting, which specifies the amount of water, the hand pouring pattern, and the resting times between blooming the grounds and actually pouring the bulk of the water. These recipes are set using the accompanying web app via an ESP32, although the main brain barista is an Arduino Nano. Grab a cup and check out the demo after the break.

Got an old but modern coffee robot lying around? You could turn it into a planter with automated watering.

Continue reading “Why Make Coffee When You’re Tired? Let A Robot Do It For You” →

Avoid Awkward Video Conference Situations With PIR And Arduino

July 24, 2021 by Danie Conradie 10 Comments

Working from home with regular video meetings has its challenges, especially if you add kids to the mix. To help avoid embarrassing situations, [Charitha Jayaweera] created Present!, a USB device to automatically turn of your camera and microphone if you suddenly need to leave your computer to maintain domestic order.

Present consists of just a PIR sensor and Arduino in a 3D printed enclosure to snap onto your monitor. When the PIR sensor no longer detects someone in range, it sends a notification over serial to a python script running on the PC to switch off the camera and microphone on Zoom (or another app). It can optionally turn these back on when you are seated again. The cheap HC-SR501 PIR module’s range can also be adjusted with a trimpot for your specific scenario. It should also be possible to shrink the device to the size of the PIR module, with a small custom PCB or one of the many tiny Arduino compatible dev boards.

For quick manual muting, check out the giant 3D printed mute button. Present was an entry into the Work from Home Challenge, part of the 2021 Hackaday Prize.

PnPAssist: A “Smart” Build Platform For Manual PCB Assembly

July 23, 2021 by Danie Conradie 16 Comments

Open source pick and place machines have come a long way in the past years, but are not necessarily worth the setup time and machine cost if you are only building a few PCBs at a time. [Nuri Erginer] found himself in this situation regularly, so he created PnPAssist, a “smart” build platform to speed up manual PCB assembly. Video after the break.

The PnP assist consists of a small circular platform that can automatically translate and rotate to place the current footprint in the middle of the platform, right in the center of your microscope’s view, and a laser crosshair. The entire device can also rotate freely on its base to avoid contorting your arm to match the footprint orientation. Just export the PnP file from your favorite PCB design software, load it on a micro SD card, plug it into the PnPAssist, and start assembling. The relevant component information is displayed on a small OLED display right on the machine. [Nuri] has also created a component organizing tray that will indicate the correct compartment with an RGB LED.

Below the build platform, a 3D printed gear is in contact with a pair of parallel lead screws driven by stepper motors. The relative motion of the lead screws allows the platform to rotate, translate, or both. This arrangement also means the machine is a lot more compact than a conventional XY-table and can be packed away when not in use. The base is held firmly in place on the workbench with a set of suction cups or screws. Power is provided through the fixed base using a slip-ring, so there are no cables to twist up as you spin the machine around. Continue reading “PnPAssist: A “Smart” Build Platform For Manual PCB Assembly” →